This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Well today's question is all about a problem that a lot of us have. I am definitely guilty of this. A listener reports they've been paying for subscriptions they don't use. One in particular for a bookkeeping service. You know a few years ago he was like I need to get set up with bookkeeping for my small business and he signed up for this service. He's been paying
for it ever since he hasn't actually been using it. I think a couple of other subscriptions as well. For me as I said it's a big problem. I need to do audits from time to time to go through and basically end up saving myself a lot of money because I realize I've been spending money. I don't need to be spending. So let's talk about it here. This listener is wondering if there's
anything he can do to recover some of those costs and avoid this problem in the future. This episode could save you a good bit of cash over the next year potentially forever at least as long as you are using subscriptions. That's the role that we live in of course. What can you do when you discover you've been paying for subscriptions you don't use? Detailed question and my answer in just 30 seconds. Hi all this is Ryan from New Orleans. I just discovered
that I've been paying for a bookkeeping subscription for the past three years without using it. And I'm feeling pretty frustrated about the wasted money. Is there anything I can do to recoup my costs? Or at least make sure it doesn't happen again? This isn't the first time I've done this. I'd really like it to stop. Well Ryan I feel like this is the curse of the modern age especially
for us side hustlers and small business owners. Anybody who pays for lots of different services and tools over time. It's kind of embarrassing how many things I have paid for and not used. So a couple things I've been doing I might have mentioned this in another episode but whenever I sign up for a new subscription I try to find one I'm not using actively and cancel it. That way I can keep trying new things which is fun and helpful without just creating this giant bloat of tools that I'm paying for. Even if I'm not paying for it's just stuff you know. So that's
the first thing I do. Second thing I do periodically a couple times a year try to go through and audit some stuff and be like hey what's not working well? What am I not using? What did I think was awesome? And now I realize maybe it's awesome for somebody else but it's not the right thing for me. And I just start canceling stuff there or downgrading to cheaper
packages or plans or whatever. That's something that helps me keep it from not going into years. Like multiple years of paying for services and not using them. That said I am guilty. Like I have done this. I have been in the same situation of for years paying for a bookkeeping service in
this situation like Ryan mentioned but other stuff. So you can go back to the company and be like hey guys you know thanks for the one month credit but I've been using it for 36 months or I've had it for 36 months and haven't done anything. What can you do? And there it's just going to be case by case. Tends to be you know this squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you complain
a couple times you might get more of a credit than you did the first one you know because they don't want to deal with the support of you know continuing to respond and having to like talk to a manager or whatever. You know you're probably not going to get all of it credited. So I think the best thing to do is just congratulate yourself on at least discovering this now and moving on at least now moving forward you're not going to have to pay $20 a month or whatever. But I think all of this shows why subscription models are so popular with businesses because they rely a lot on breakage. You know it breakage meaning people who pay for a service but rarely or never use it. So maybe to flip it a little bit think what can I do in my business to create
a subscription model and hopefully your whole business model is not just getting people to sign up for services they don't use but the fact is over time people sign up for stuff they forget about it they eventually cancel but then there's ongoing revenue. So maybe one final thing if you can't get a refund for all those months and you might actually use the service like after you've already exhausted your appeals regarding a refund ask the company if they would offer you account credits or perhaps a discount on future services that could be a good compromise again assuming that you can actually use the service at some point. So I know it's frustrating but I think it's always good to just focus on the future. Ryan thank you for the question listeners be smart out there take care of yourself. I hope you'll subscribe follow come back for more. My
name is Chris Guillebeau this is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project. From the Onward Project.
